Category Archives: Santa Fe Real Estate News

This article is syndicated from The New Mexican. For a complete copy of the original article, click here.

It’s not quite time to cue up “Let the Good Times Roll,” Shirley and Lee’s 1950s R&B classic. But maybe the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” will do the trick.

The number of building permits issued by the city of Santa Fe has increased in recent months, tempting local officials to wonder whether the local economy is rebounding.

Matthew O’Reilly, Santa Fe’s land-use director, wouldn’t go that far Thursday, but confirmed that city staff members handling building permits are busier than a year ago. Cautioning that they were preliminary numbers, O’Reilly predicted the number of city-issued building permits for the year that just ended June 30 would eclipse the previous year’s total by 36 percent.

“We’re seeing a lot of commercial permits, and that includes new construction and remodels. And we are seeing a lot of additions, remodels and alterations in residential construction,” O’Reilly said. “What we are not seeing is new home production building.”

John Di Janni, a local builder, can relate.

Di Janni, who has built custom homes in Santa Fe since 1977, finished his last home in 2008 after several years of juggling work on three to four new homes at a time.

“We haven’t built a house since then,” he said. “There are some people who are lucky to land a new house, but they are few and far between.”

Custom Homes by John Di Janni has survived on remodeling jobs and additions to existing homes since then. About a year ago, Di Janni noticed that the number of calls for such work began to increase, he said.

“People want to update their homes, new windows, new stuccos; rather than buying new, they are fixing up their houses, it seems to me,” he said.

Tax data appear to confirm the construction trend. Spending in the city of Santa Fe rose significantly in a year-to-year comparison between April 2010 and this past April, when the city reported $19 million in taxable receipts in the construction industry compared with $11 million in the previous year, according to information from the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.

The gross-receipts tax is generally a good indicator of economic activity because it is a levy not only on the purchase of goods but also of services. And, generally, growth in taxable receipts usually means more revenue for the city. A clearer picture will emerge when numbers come in for the months of May and June, the last two months of the fiscal year.

Even though it was only a snapshot, tax data for the city of Santa Fe in April appear promising. Transactions in the city that were subject to the gross-receipts tax were $202 million, nudging past the $197 million reported in April 2010 and the $200 million recorded in April 2009. April is the latest month for which information was available.

Optimists might be tempted to point to a ongoing recovery, but the data aren’t so easily interpreted. Yes, local economic activity this April was slightly better in a year-to-year-comparison, but it is still well below matching pre-recession levels. The taxable portion of the gross-receipts tax in April 2008 was $222 million, well above this April’s figures.

There are other signs that the local economy hasn’t fully recovered.

Retail trade, Santa Fe’s major gross-receipts tax generator, appears to have stayed flat, if not dropped slightly, in recent years. Retail transactions subject to the tax dipped to $67.8 million this April, down from $68.8 million in April 2010. That compares unfavorably to the $73.5 million reported in April of 2008 and $68.2 million in April 2009.

The snapshot of the city’s economic activity seems to coincide with what’s happening in New Mexico overall.

According to a recent report by the Legislative Finance Committee, the Legislature’s budget arm, state tax revenues are greater than expected. Through April, the state received $87 million more than anticipated.

Receipts from the state’s corporate income tax showed big growth, coming in nearly 200 percent over last year’s levels, the report noted. But higher-than-anticipated rebates from the state’s film production tax credit program are expected to eat into that growth, the report said.

“An unexpected rush to receive film refunds before the new tax credit law takes effect in FY12 has pushed full-year credits to approximately $101 million compared to the forecast of $65 million,” according to the LFC. The rebates totaled $65.9 million in the state budget year that ended June 30, 2010.

The LFC’s report was issued July 1, the first day of the new state budget year. It was also the day the new law changing the state’s film production tax credit program took effect.

The Airport Road neighborhood is located in the Southwest section of Santa Fe. Airport Road was once a semi-rural road leading out to the Santa Fe Municipal Airport. It is now an area of condos, town homes and single-family dwellings that looks more like other U.S. cities than any other part of Santa Fe. Airport Road is also a commercial corridor through the Southwestern end of the city. Roads along Airport Road are paved, most streets have sidewalks and most houses have garages. Prices for homes in the Southwest section of Santa Fe, including in the Airport Road neighborhood, tend to be somewhat lower than the rest of Santa Fe.

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Airport Road neighborhood, contact me, Karen Meredith, Keller Williams Realty, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Airport Road neighborhood home is worth, click here.

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Española Area, contact me, Karen Meredith, Keller Williams Realty, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Española Area home is worth, click here.

The North West city area of Santa Fe includes the popular and affordable neighborhood of Casa Solana. Built in the 1950s and 1960s by the well known and locally beloved developer Allen Stamm, Casa Solana has beautiful mature trees, sidewalks and paved streets. Residents enjoy a neighborhood pool and convenient shopping at the Solana Center. Homes here have the Stamm traditional features of vigas, hardwood floors, fireplaces and solid construction.

As you travel down West Alameda, newly constructed homes appear on larger, more open tracts. Homes begin to spread out a bit and horse farms emerge to dot the landscape. Some lots in the hills offer 360 degree views, while others have a beautiful view of the Santa Fe city lights.

Along US Hwy 84/285 at the exit for the world renowned Santa Fe Opera is Monte Sereno, one of Santa Fe’s newer neighborhoods. Homes here enjoy breathtaking views of the majestic Sangre de Cristo and Jemez Mountain ranges on lots averaging 1.7 acres.

The North West city area also includes Zocolo, a residential condominium community of casita-style homes centered around small plazas.

Days on Market (DOM)
The Santa Fe City North West Area – Residential Sold*

Selling Price: % of List Price
The Santa Fe City North West Area – Residential Sold*

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Santa Fe City Northwest Area, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Santa Fe City Northwest Area home is worth, click here.

If you would like to know more about homes for sale in the Tesuque neighborhood, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of what your Tesuque neighborhood home is worth, click here.

Prices for homes in Tesuque currently range from the mid $400,000s to several million dollars.

The Old Las Vegas Highway Corridor is located southeast of the Plaza on Old Las Vegas Highway and extends to Highway 285 South. It is near the main hospital, St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, and many retail services.

Lots in this area, nestled in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, average between two and a half to approximately five acres depending on the community. Although this area is only minutes from town, its feel is decidedly rural, and its views to the south and west are more expansive. Many horse properties are in this area and horse trails weave in and around many of those properties. You can find a beautiful home with privacy and views here. Neighborhoods include Arroyo Hondo, Double Arrow, Overlook, Hondo Hills, Sunlit Hills, La Barberia, and Seton Village. Housing is not uniform or cookie-cutter and the styles range from modest homes to elegant territorial and pueblo ranchs. Arroyo Hondo, in particular, is known for its superior horse properties.

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Old Las Vegas Highway Corridor neighborhoods, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Old Las Vegas Highway Corridor neighborhood home is worth, click here.

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Bellamah neighborhood, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Bellamah neighborhood home is worth, click here.

The Airport Road neighborhood is located in the Southwest section of Santa Fe. Airport Road was once a semi-rural road leading out to the Santa Fe Municipal Airport. It is now an area of condos, town homes and single-family dwellings that looks more like other U.S. cities than any other part of Santa Fe. Airport Road is also a commercial corridor through the Southwestern end of the city. Roads along Airport Road are paved, most streets have sidewalks and most houses have garages. Prices for homes in the Southwest section of Santa Fe, including in the Airport Road neighborhood, tend to be somewhat lower than the rest of Santa Fe.

If you would like to know more about any of the homes for sale in the Airport Road neighborhood, contact me, Karen Meredith, Prudential Santa Fe Real Estate, by e-mail or at (505) 603-3036. For a free market analysis of how much your Airport Road neighborhood home is worth, click here.

By Bruce Krasnow| The New Mexican, Posted: Wednesday, April 13, 2011. This article is syndicated from The New Mexican, for a copy of the original article, click here.T

JoAnne Vigil Coppler has a short refrain for those waiting for the Santa Fe real-estate market to come back before trying to sell a house.

“It’s going to be a very, very long time, if ever,” said Coppler, Santa Fe Association of Realtors board president, who on Wednesday released sales data for the first quarter of 2011.

The data show the market slogging along with about the same number of home sales closed as last year, and a countywide median price of $355,000 for a single-family sale — a 2.7 percent decline from a year ago.

But the biggest surprise is the smaller inventory of homes on the market, a 14 percent drop from 2010. Some of this represents fewer foreclosures, which RealtyTrac reported this morning. It also could indicate the reluctance of longtime owners to sell at today’s market price.

“Sellers may be choosing to rent rather than put their houses up for sale in the competitive market,” Coppler said.

The lower inventory also has to do with a less mobile society, said veteran agent Lois Sury. “People aren’t moving for jobs, and those who need to sell a home to buy another can’t.”

That may be one reason many of the home-mortgage applicants coming into Santa Fe banks are first-time buyers, said Pam Trujillo, a lender with Community Bank in Santa Fe. Though paperwork and underwriting are tougher than ever, new buyers can go forward with a clean offer that is not contingent on a home sale.

“A lot more local people are looking to buy,” Trujillo said. “(For) those without a house to sell, there are less complications.”

With regard to foreclosures, Santa Fe’s lower numbers follow the rest of the U.S., which shows all foreclosure activities from default notices to auctions to bank sales are down from a year ago. The total foreclosure activity in Santa Fe at the end of March was the lowest since the first quarter of 2009 — and down 26 percent from December.

Highlights of the first quarter:

• There were 113 closed single-family home sales in the city, with a median price of $282,000 — a drop of 11.2 percent from a year ago.

• There were 96 closed sales in the unincorporated area, with a median price of $430,000 — an increase of 10.9 percent.

• There were 57 condo and townhouse sales in the quarter, with a median price of $255,000 — an 8.9 percent decline.